In just one year, Battle Royale mania has changed gaming: Here's how Call of Duty's impressive new Battle Royale mode compares to 'Fortnite' and 'PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds'

Kevin Webb, provided by

Published
7:00 am CDT, Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Business Insider

Video games have entered the era of the battle royale, a subgenre of shooting games that pits 100 players against each other on a single map in a fight for survival. The genre exploded with popularity last year with a pair of new games, "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" and "Fortnite: Battle Royale," introducing millions of players to the battle royale concept.

This year both "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield," the two largest multiplayer shooting franchises, announced that their games would feature battle royale modes. While several games have already tried to mimic the success of "Fortnite" and "PUBG," the big budget production teams of "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield" threaten to deliver a more complete product. Blackout, "Call of Duty's" battle royale mode, launched with "Call of Duty: Black Ops 4" on October 12th and has already been commended for its polished take on the genre.

As developers work to create their ideal version of battle royale, let's take a look at why the genre is a hit and what makes the experience of each battle royale game unique.

How does the battle royale genre work?

Activision/Treyarch

The genre is loosely inspired by the Japanese novel, manga and film "Battle Royale," which focuses on a class of high school students forced to fight to the death while trapped on a remote island. In the video game version of this concept, up to 100 players deploy onto a single map and must find weapons to defend themselves. As time goes on, a kill field begins to close in around the map, constantly shrinking the amount of safe space for players to survive in. Inevitably, they are forced to kill each other until only one player or team is left standing.

Battle Royale games usually last 20 minutes at most, though the vast majority of players don't make it that far. As soon as you die in a round, you're free to join the next batch of 99 players in a fresh round. With a massive map, little waiting time and dozens of players to interact with, battle royale games cater to a variety of playstyles. Groups of friends can join together and hunt for other players across the map, while lone wolf gamers can bide their time and hide until there are just a few survivors.

Comparing the current generation of battle royale games.

"PlayUnknown's Battlegrounds"/PUBG Corp

"PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds," usually called "PUBG" for short, distilled the battle royale style, taking influences from survival shooters like "H1Z1" and "DayZ." The game entered early access for PC in March 2017 and sold one million copies in its first 16 days. "PUBG" has continued to expand with an official release for Xbox One and a mobile version of the game for Android and iOS.

'Fortnite' wasn't originally a battle royale game.

Epic Games

"Fortnite" originally launched as a four-player cooperative survival game in July 2017, but after seeing the success of "PUBG," "Fortnite" developer Epic Games decided to release its own free-to-play battle royale mode in September 2017. "Fortnite: Battle Royale" has skyrocketed in the year since, reporting more than 120 million players worldwide and becoming the first game to feature cross platform play between PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, PC, Android and iOS devices.